Solar Industry At Crossroads; Either Get Big Or Go Home

Rhone Resch offered his Solar Bill Of Rights at this year's Solar Power International ’09.

“The solar industry is at
crossroad; we’ve either got to get big or go home,” Rhone Resch,
president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, told attendees of
Solar Power International ’09’s opening session.

Resch, and
other speakers such as Robert Kennedy Jr., named one of Time
Magazine’s “Heroes for the Planet” for his success in helping
Riverkeeper lead the fight to restore the Hudson River, and Ed Begley
Jr., star of HGTV’s “Living with Ed,” railed against the huge
subsidies being given to the coal and oil industries.

Attendees
were told the United States has the potential to become the biggest solar
energy market in the world, but it has to get on a level playing field with fossil
fuels.

Resch
said that fossil fuel industries received $72 billion in federal subsidies
between 2002 and 2008 while the solar industry scored less than $1 billion.

“Taxpayers
are forced to subsidize companies like ExxonMobil, companies that are the richest
in the history of the world,” he said. Resch urged attendees to get active
politically, to raise big money for politicians and mobilize constituents to
pressure Congress to support the solar agenda.

Resch
also indicated that oil and coal interests are spending millions of dollars on
PR and advertising, much of it a deliberate effort to discredit the solar
industry. “We have relied on good will long enough, and if that’s the only
arrow in our quiver, we will lose.”

Resch
proposed a “Solar Bill of Rights”:

1 – Americans
have the right to put solar on their homes or businesses. Antiquated rules
prevent many homes and businesses from going solar. From restrictive covenants
to onerous connection, permitting and inspection fees these rules create
fundamental barriers to solar. Utilities should not be allowed to restrict
green power with red tape.

2 – Americans
have the right to connect their solar system to the grid with uniform national
standards. This is as simple as creating a standard jack for telephones.

3
– Consumers have the right to Net Meter and be compensated at the
very least with full retail electricity rates.

4
– We have a right to a fair competitive environment. Today, solar has anything
but.

5 – We also have the right to equal
access to public lands. Oil and gas companies are operating on 45 million acres
of public lands. Today, solar companies have access to zero. America has the best solar
resources in the world and we can’t harness the full potential of the sun
without accessing our sun-baked lands of the West, Resch said.

6
– We have the right to interconnect and build new transmission lines. Here,
too, we seek no more than what other industries have.

7
– Americans have the right to buy solar electricity from our utilities.

8
– Consumers have the right, and should expect, the highest ethical treatment
from the solar industry. We will not stand for those who cheat, lie and take
advantage of the good name of solar energy.

“We seek no more than the freedom to compete on equal
terms and no more than the liberty for consumers to choose the energy source
they think best,” Resch said.

Secretary of Labor Offers Support

Hilda L. Solis,
Secretary of Labor, addressed the group at the opening session as well. She
indicated the United States
can remain one of the world’s leading importers of foreign oil, or we can make
investments that would allow us to become the world’s leading exporter of
renewable energy.

“We can
let the jobs of tomorrow be created abroad, or we can create those jobs right
here in America
and lay the foundation for lasting prosperity,” Solis said. “We believe that a
more prosperous future for our nation’s economy means making investments in
energy efficiency and clean energy today.”

She indicated the Recovery Act will invest more than $80 billion
in clean energy. She said the Department of Energy estimates that solar in the U.S. could be
at the beginning of a 25 percent growth rate, resulting in solar contributing
between 10-20 percent of total electricity by 2030.

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